J5 urges private sector to join fight against global tax crime

SINGAPORE – UK and Australian representatives from the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) have urged private-sector businesses to work with international partners in the fight against offshore tax crime and money laundering.

Simon York, from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Custom’s (HMRC) Fraud Investigation Service (FIS), and Brett Martin, Assistant Commissioner within the Australian Taxation Office, were speaking in front of 150 delegates from the private sector at the Compliance and Transparency Week in Singapore.

The J5 was launched earlier this year following a call from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for international partners to do more to tackle the enablers of tax crime.

Delivering the keynote speech, FIS Director Simon York said that while everyone had a part to play in ensuring the stability and integrity of markets, private-sector businesses were uniquely placed to assess risk and threats within sectors because of their in-depth knowledge of customers.

He said: “The simple fact is we are living in an increasingly connected world where the movement of money and capital is becoming increasingly fluid and trading activity is not constrained by physical or geographical barriers.

“While this is undoubtedly challenging, it brings opportunities for us to be innovative and creative in the way we work as individual organisations and in partnerships.

“The truth is HMRC, the J5 and everybody in this room has a part to play in ensuring we are doing everything we can to crack down on tax crime and money laundering.

“It’s only by working together that we can ensure that we have a truly global reach, while making the world a smaller place for those who would try our exploit our systems, our economies and ultimately our societies.”

Membership of the J5 includes the heads of tax crime and senior officials from The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the Dutch Fiscal Information and

Investigation Service (FIOD), HMRC, and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

The group’s priorities include:

• enhancing existing intelligence programmes and identifying significant targets for new investigations;
• working jointly on operational activity;
• improving the tactical intelligence threat picture;
• leading the wider international community in developing its strategic understanding of the methods, weaknesses and risks from offshore tax crime and cybercrime; and
• raising international awareness that the J5 is working together to reduce international and transnational tax crime and money laundering, creating uncertainty for those who seek to commit offshore tax crime and cybercrime.

All five countries face similar threats – organised crime groups and wealthy offshore tax evaders who are well resourced and have access to professional enablers to hide income and assets using the global financial system.

Speaking to delegates, Assistant Commissioner within the Australian Taxation Office Brett Martin said:

“We are convinced that offshore structures and financial instruments, where used to commit tax crime and money laundering, are detrimental to the economic, fiscal, and social interests of our countries.

“We will work together to investigate those who enable offshore tax crime and those who benefit from it. We will also collaborate internationally to reduce the growing threat to tax administrations posed by cryptocurrencies and cybercrime.”